UX Designer, Author, Sketchnoter, Lindy hopper

Ohio Diversity Leadership Conference

Thanks to OCLC being a corporate sponsor, I was able to attend the 2017 Ohio Diversity and Leadership conference in downtown Columbus, Ohio. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this conference… the website didn’t have a lot to go on regarding talks or themes. Both became very clear as the day went on: Everything was a panel, and almost every talk devolved into Millennials vs Baby Boomers. It was pretty frustrating, honestly.

Beyond that, there were some nice points made by the panelists that I captured in my sketchnotes. Shown below…

As you can see, there were plenty of great points made about how to be a great leader (regardless of role).

I really wanted to hear some actionable tasks one could take to have better work-life balance, but it really just focused on using your community to help you manage your family, or let your family know your work responsibilities by teaching them to be self-sufficient. This didn’t feel very work-life balance at all, rather, it was “let your family know you won’t be around and teach them how to deal.”

This panel devolved into a weird debate between Millennials vs Baby Boomers. It got to the point where the one Baby Boomer (who outed herself) felt she had to speak up to “defend” her worker generation. While I learned some great things to always keep in mind, such as Event + Response = Outcome, attempting to get this information was a little painful.

The Emotional Intelligence talk was interesting from how they made it clear that leaders think about more than just the operational “taking the hill” but also focus on “putting people where they can succeed.” That level of awareness for your team and yourself takes time and practice. I loved the point that you need to remain genuine to who you are, as people respond to sincerity.

About

Binaebi Akah Calkins is a UX Designer proudly based in Columbus, OH. Her interest in communication, collaboration, visual design, and development, plus her persistent need to bring order out of chaos, led her to the user experience industry. With a Bachelors in Computer Science Engineering, a minor in English, and a Masters in Human Computer Interaction Design, Binaebi facilitates solutions with cross-disciplinary teams.